Westmeath Community Development

The town of Athlone was awash with colour, music, scary costumes, glow sticks, 15ft puppets made by Tonnta Ltd and lots of fun and craic at the very first Athlone Halloween Festival on Saturday Night. At least a 1,000 people turned up for the parade and the Monsters Ball Event.

Rain even stopped for a few hours despite a few worried Committee Members earlier in the day!

Leading proceedings at the Monsters Ball was Shannonside Radios very own Pete Casey who did a fabulous job keeping the crowd going and was very busy handing out spot prizes!

The Halloween Festival Committee were delighted with the turn out for the event after all the hard work that went into the planning and organising of this event.

The Committee would sincerely like to thank the following: firstly   to all the young people  for agreeing to take part- over 275 young people participated in the Workshops which were held prior to the event in and around schools, and young peoples clubs in Athlone.

Secondly- funding : Westmeath VEC through the Young peoples facilities and Services Fund from the Office of Minister for children, Roscommon County Council, Athlone Rapid Programme and Athlone Drugs Awareness Group and   Athlone Town Council for venue event   and barriers.

Thirdly-Sponsorship of prizes

-          Smyths Toy store, IMC athlone, Callaghans Butchers, Cleopatra restaurant, Slice of Life Restaurant, , Fernhill Garden Centre, Dooley’s Flower Shop, Bargain Book Shop Golden Island,  Keenans Sports and Thorntons- Golden Island, Loaves and Fishes, Troy’s Butchers Golden Island, Fruit and Veg Market Golden Island, Carphone Warehouse, Eason’s, Music World,  Big thank you goes to Mary’s Discount Store and  The Kiosk Pearse Street for all the goodies they supplied free of charge.

-          For good deals on prices for services- Snap printing, Easter Hill Security,  Carnival Marquees and Prince of Wales Hotel for their help and support before and during the event and also for allowing us to discard all litter after the event.

-          Thanks to Attitude Dance Company, Hi Energy Dance Group- Ravens Marching Band, young peoples Bands Cryptic Silence, Fire Assembly and Schmeicher who were given an opportunity to perform at the event.

Committee members were delighted at the response from the kind sponsors and even though we are in the middle of a recession there is no shortage of community spirit in Athlone Town!!

To all the kind people who volunteered especially Christine and Willie Greene, either before the event or on the night as parade marshalls and for generally  helping  out at the Civic Square. Special thanks to Sinead Casey and the staff at WCDL After Schools Service for working on the night also.

To the following people on the Executive Planning Group who worked extremely hard in planning the event:     Linda-Jo Quinn and Helen McCaul @ Westmeath Community Development-    Delores Crear @ Athlone Community Taskforce,- Mary Lennon and James Tiplin  @Athlone Community Radio- and Sandie Hughes @ Tonnta Ltd

And last but not least to Andrew Haron and the Community Garda team who co-ordinated road closure for the parade itself and generally supported a successful, stress free event.

It was fantastic to see an idea that came from the Community Representatives on the Athlone RAPID Area Implementation Team come to fruition and no doubt this will now be an annual event!!! So start planning for next year folks.